AI is Working in the SOC. So Why are Security Executives More Worried Than Ever?

Something shifted in security operations over the last two years: AI stopped being a pilot program and became the plan.And if you survey 500 security professionals on whether that's going well – as Omdia did, commissioned by Rapid7 – you get a remarkable level of consensus: 97% report positive outcomes, 98% say AI reduces alert fatigue, and 95% say it's helping address staffing shortages.Those numbers are high enough that the story could stop there; AI is working, everyone agrees. Move on. But there's a more interesting finding sitting underneath that consensus, and it tells you something important about where security operations is actually headed.The confidence gap nobody is talking aboutWhile frontline SOC teams report strong confidence in AI, executive security leaders like CISOs, CSOs, and VPs are taking a considerably harder look.The research found that executive leaders are 1.6 times more likely than operational security managers to be highly concerned about how AI vendors handle their organization's security data. This isn't a contradiction of the 97% positive sentiment, but rather a maturity signal.When AI was experimental, the question was: does it work? Operational team…